Date: November 02,2014

Working Together to Promote the Internationalization of Taiwanese Music: Tainan’s Voice of Freedom Radio Station Makes Donation to University Radio Station

To mark the 21st anniversary of Chang Jung Christian University, Mr. Chen Shunping, Manager of Tainan’s Voice of Freedom Radio, donated several collections of music to the university radio station, Voice of CJCU. At a ceremony in the Office of the President on November 11, Chen explained that the majority of the donated music consisted of Taiwanese songs for contemporary audiences and expressed his desire that Taiwanese music would gain more international exposure. Chen hopes that major radio stations will help promote Taiwanese culture and songs and not allow the special appeal of Taiwanese music to be forgotten.

The Voice of Freedom Radio station is a local commercial station with a long history of cooperation with Chang Jung Christian University. As CJCU President Lee Yung-Lung noted, the relationship is a good example of industry-university cooperation and gives students the opportunity to learn a business model for interacting with a radio audience. On Chen’s part, the Voice of Freedom station manager said that he hoped the number of students participating in local internships would increase and that students would gain a greater understanding of Taiwanese radio stations rather than following the example of mainstream stations that give Taiwanese music little airplay and reinforce the widespread view that Taiwanese music is low-brow. He also expressed his hope that the university’s radio station would expand its scope to better spread the gospel message upon which the university was founded. The director of the Voice of CJCU radio station, Yang Mu-Li, also expressed his desire for continued development of industry-university cooperation so that students can gain understanding in advance of the challenges they will face in real-life work projects. In addition, Yang was hopeful that the university station could slowly upgrade its equipment to keep pace with the digitization of the broadcasting industry.